Southeast Area Monitoring & Assessment Program

Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission

Biological and environmental data from all SEAMAP Gulf of Mexico surveys are included in the SEAMAP Information System. Raw data are edited by the collecting agency and verified by the SEAMAP Data Manager prior to entry into the system. Data from all SEAMAP Gulf of Mexico surveys from 1982 to present have been entered or are currently being entered into the system.

• Trawl/Plankton Survey
• Trawl Survey Station Map
• Bottom Longline Survey
• Bottom Longline Survey Station Map
• SEAMAP Data Download

About SEAMAP: Gulf of Mexico

The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) is a State/Federal/university program for the collection, management, and dissemination of fishery-independent data (information collected without direct reliance on statistics reported by commercial or recreational fishermen) in United States waters of the Gulf of Mexico (Eldridge 1988). A major SEAMAP objective is to provide a large, standardized database needed by management agencies, industry, and scientists to make sound management decisions and further develop fishery resources in a cost-efficient manner. To accomplish this goal, survey data must be disseminated in a useful format to SEAMAP participants, cooperators, and other interested organizations.

The SEAMAP Program began in March 1981 when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), presented a SEAMAP Strategic Plan (1981) to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC). This strategic plan outlined the proposed program organization (goals, objectives, procedures, resource requirements, etc.). A SEAMAP Subcommittee was then formed within the existing framework of the GSMFC. The Subcommittee consists of one representative from each state fishery management agency [Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC); Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR); Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) represented by the University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (USM/GCRL); Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF); and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)], one from NMFS SEFSC and a non-voting member representing the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GMFMC). The Subcommittee has organized and successfully coordinated numerous resource surveys from 1982 through 2017 (Table 1). The resultant data are published in atlases for the surveys in 1982 (Stuntz et al. 1985); 1983 (Thompson and Bane 1986a); 1984 (Thompson and Bane 1986b); 1985 (Thompson et al. 1988); 1986 (Sanders et al. 1990a); 1987 (Sanders et al. 1990b); 1988 (Sanders et al. 1991a); 1989 (Sanders et al. 1991b); 1990 (Sanders et al. 1992); 1991 (Donaldson et al. 1993); 1992 (Donaldson et al. 1994); 1993 (Donaldson et al. 1996); 1994 (Donaldson et al. 1997a); 1995 (Donaldson et al. 1997b); 1996 (Donaldson et al. 1998); 1997 (Rester et al. 1999); 1998 (Rester et al. 2000); 1999 (Rester et al. 2001); 2000 (Rester et al. 2002); 2001 (Rester et al. 2004); 2002 (Rester et al. 2008); 2003 (Rester et al. 2009a); 2004 (Rester 2009b); 2005 (Rester 2010a); 2006 (Rester 2010b); 2007 (Rester 2010c); 2008 (Rester 2011a); 2009 (Rester 2011b); 2010 (Rester 2012); 2011 (Rester 2014); 2012 (Rester 2014), 2013 (Rester 2015), 2014 (Rester 2017a), 2015 (Rester 2017b) and 2016 (Rester 2017c). Environmental assessment activities that occurred with each of the surveys can be found in Table 1. All data are available to researchers or interested individuals. Details about how to obtain SEAMAP data can be found in the Data Request section of this document.

In early 2017, the SEAMAP Subcommittee identified and began to plan the year's SEAMAP survey activities for the Gulf of Mexico. In keeping with the program goal of establishing a coordinated long-term resource database, it was decided to continue the same types of survey activities conducted in 1982 through 2016. Overall survey objectives in 1982 to 2017 were to assess the distribution and abundance of recreational and commercial organisms collected by plankton, video, bottom longlines, hook and line, and trawl gears, and document environmental factors that might affect their distribution and abundance. Data from plankton surveys are used for detection and assessment of fishery resources; in the determination of spawning seasons and areas; in investigations of early survival and recruitment mechanisms; and in estimation of the abundance of a stock based on its spawning production (Sherman et al. 1983). Assessment of the Texas Closure (Nichols 1982, 1984; Nichols and Poffenberger 1987) was the rationale for the establishment of the trawl surveys and to establish a seasonal database to assess the abundance and distribution of the shrimp and groundfish stocks across the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Reef Fish Survey was designed to determine the relative abundance of reef fish populations and habitat using a video recording system (Russell, unpublished report).

A major purpose of SEAMAP is to provide resource survey data to State and Federal management agencies and universities participating in SEAMAP activities. This thirty-sixth in a series of SEAMAP environmental and biological atlases presents such data, in a summarized form, collected during the 2017 SEAMAP surveys.